Prince of Music
by MyGirlfriendIsTheMoon
Summary: Tezuka never expected to find a rival, not even at the most prestigious arts school in the country.  Then he met Fuji.  AU Perfect Pair
1. Before We Met

**AN: Before starting I should say that I know nothing about dance. I am a musician and I can play a few instruments really well but I can neither dance nor have I ever taken any dance classes so excuse me if I'm clueless about that.**

**This story is kind of inspired by tenimyu. I just find Tezuka dancing and singing extremely amusing for some reason because that would never happen in the anime. Maybe I'm just weird like that. **

Tezuka just knew taking ballet was a bad idea. He'd been avoiding having to get his one credit of dance since freshman year in the hope that he could talk his way out of it, but to no avail. Perhaps the only good thing was that he wasn't in the silly beginner's class. No one even dared suggest that Tezuka Kunimitsu would go into any beginner class because Tezuka Kunimitsu was good at everything even things he'd never done before.

Still that didn't stop him from regretting not following his friends Kikumaru and Oishi when they signed up for the hip-hop class. Instead he had followed Atobe which was always a bad idea. At the time, the arrogant boy's persuasion had made complete sense. Those who did ballet were much more flexible than the people who took hip-hop classes. Yes, Atobe always managed to turn everything into something sexual.

Tezuka entered the classroom already regretting his decision. Atobe followed and immediately gestured to some girls that were warming up across the room. One dropped effortlessly into a split and leaned down to touch her nose to her leg. "See what I mean? Imagine what you could do with a girl like that"

Tezuka rolled his eyes and refrained from reminding his friend that he was gay and that not all people were willing to sleep with every student in the school, disregarding age, gender, attractiveness, or personality.

However, Atobe noticed his eye rolling and grinned. "I forgot, you're not into that", said the silver-haired boy calmly, "But I think that they might interest you", he gestured to two boy that were chatting nearby.

Tezuka's breath caught when he saw them. One, he recognized immediately. Yukimura Seiichi, the most attractive boy in the school. The pale boy had soft blue hair and a thin shapely body that would make anyone, even the boys that claimed to be straight, drool. He was wearing a shirt several sizes to big that came down to his knees. Tezuka vaguely wondered if the boy was wearing any shorts because all he could see under the shirt was pale shapely legs.

The other, Tezuka didn't recognize. It seemed impossible that he'd never seen the boy because he was downright beautiful. The boy's soft brown hair surrounded a perfect, kind face. His eyes were closed and a warm smile graced his perfect lips. To add to that, the boy was dressed very differently from Yukimura. He wore a very well-fitting shirt that outlined his lean muscles and very short shorts. There was very little left to the imagination.

Atobe swatted Tezuka annoyed that the stern boy was ignoring him. "You're drooling"

Tezuka blushed scarlet, but didn't hesitate to ask, "Who's the guy talking with Yukimura?"

Atobe pondered give the beautiful boy a critical look. "How should I know? If you want I could…"

Tezuka immediately said, "I do not want any of your meddling. Last time you tried to help me, I was injured so badly that I couldn't play for two months"

Atobe snorted but didn't disagree. "The first violin section sounded fine without you. Would you stop holding it over my head?"

Tezuka was about to send a particularly nasty comment back when he saw the beautiful boy stretching out of the corner of his eye. The boy pulled his leg up to his forehead in a way that made his lean muscles stretch so enticingly. The stoic boy felt his mouth drop open as he watched intently.

Atobe pulled him back into the present roughly by shaking him. "You are totally going to fail this class if you can't keep your eyes off other guy's asses for more than ten seconds."

Before Tezuka could reply, Yukimaru coughed politely and everyone fell silently in either awe or fear. The gentle boy spoke softly but firmly as he explained, "Most of you have probably heard that several of our dance instructors have become pregnant recently, and to make sure that classes can continue while they're on maternity leave, Fuji and I will be teaching this class."

The only part of the introduction, and the speech that followed, Tezuka heard was the name. Fuji. It fit the beautiful boy perfectly and Tezuka had no problem with referring to him as Fuji in his head. While Yukimura outline grueling, painful class plans, Tezkua snuck glances at Fuji.

Fuji's eyes were still closed and he didn't seem to be paying attention to the lecture that was going on as he bobbed his head in time to a song only he could hear. Tezuka let his eyes wander down to the boy's chest. He was definitely skinny, but the muscles in his chest stood out distractingly with the overly tight shirt. Tezuka didn't dare let his eye wander lower for fear that he might actually start drooling at those perfect legs.

Without warning, speech time was over and the others were all standing and moving around. Tezuka glanced at Atobe who said, "What would you do without me? We're about to start basic exercises. Just watch the others"

Tezuka nodded and found a spot near Atobe where he could watch plenty of others. He took a deep breath and told himself that there was nothing to worry about, dance would be easy.

…

One hour later, Tezuka realized just how wrong he was. He was sweating and in serious pain even though the others seemed to be almost bored with the class. Tezuka had spent the entire class stumbling around, a beat behind the others, attempting not to look like an idiot.

To add insult to injury, Atobe, who was barely short of breath, commented dryly, "You are the worst dancer I've ever seen. You look like an elephant trying to dance on a tightrope", when Tezuka glared at him, Atobe amended his statement, "Sorry, that was insulting… to tightrope walking elephants"

"You were hardly the pinnacle of grace", muttered Tezuka cleaning of his fogged up glasses.

"You must be joking", laughed Atobe, "I was able to do these simple moves effortlessly. I'm sure I'll be one of the best in the class when I actually learn the names of all these moves"

Tezuka groaned again. The moves just made it all worse. He could barely get his legs to form the positions, let alone remember what first position was. He hadn't even known that there was a first position in dance. He'd always assumed first position was only used in string orchestra. Speaking of orchestra, he was going to be late for Philharmonic Orchestra. It was unheard of for any concert master to be late whether it was the lowly string ensemble or the Philharmonic.

Their conductor, Ryuzaki, made no comment as Tezuka and Atobe ran into the practice in the middle of warm-up, but many of the players giggled, making stupid jokes. Tezuka ignored them as he tuned his violin silently, but Atobe reacted with equally stupid comebacks as he took his place as head of the trumpet section.

As Tezuka sat down, he stand partner said dryly, "Considering your disheveled appearance, your lateness, and the amount of sweat on your face, I'd say that there's a 69% chance that you have just had your first dance class."

Tezuka rolled his eyes at the tall boy asking sarcastically, "Only 69%? What's the other 31% percent?"

Inui grinned rather evilly saying, "There was also a 30% chance that you were having sex with Atobe"

Tezuka blushed darkly and was about to start chewing his stand partner out when Ryuzkai tapped her baton on the stand clearing her throat. They all snapped to attention as she began speaking, "Since this is the first day of a new semester, we have a few new members that just moved up from the Symphonic Orchestra. Echizen Ryoma's is our new first violin. Kamio Akira's is our newest percussionist, Akutagawa Jirou is our new trumpet. And Fuji Shusuke is our new violist"

Tezuka looked up at the last name and then immediately ducked when Fuji's gaze, or the direction his closed eyes seemed to be looking, passed over him. In a moment of true grace, Tezuka's head hit his stand and sent the stand and his music flying backwards and his glasses flying out of sight. The whole orchestra laughed as he rubbed his head ruefully. He snuck another glance at Fuji who was smiling quietly.

Inui said, "You seem 47% more jumpy than normal today."

"I don't know what you're talking about", replied Tezuka quietly as he bent to pick up the papers and searched desperately for his glasses. His face felt like it was glowing with heat as he returned to his seat. Inui was giving him an odd look, but he ignored it.

In a very kind move, Ryuzaki refrained from any jokes and immediately began practice. Tezuka made sure that he played every song perfectly just in case anyone suspected that something was wrong. Even so, his eyes kept wandering to the back of the viola section where Fuji played quietly with eyes opened wide for the first time. His eyes were bright blue and intense as he alternated between his music and watching the baton.

It wasn't until the end of practice that Tezuka realized that Fuji had practically had his music memorized on the first day of class. When Atobe walked up to him after class with the intention of mocking the stoic violinist, but Tezuka cut him off saying, "I think that Fuji might be a genius"

Ryuzaki overheard and asked, "How did you know? He's a musical prodigy, but I heard that he's only interested in dance. I was lucky to get him to agree to join orchestra"

"He wasn't in any groups before?" asked Atobe in surprise.

"No, but don't tell anyone", said the conductor happily, "I don't want people knowing that there's a way to just skip to the top"

They both agreed because she was right. Musicians always had to work their way up the groups no matter how good they were. No exceptions were made. Somehow that made Fuji seem even more alluring and beautiful to Tezuka.

**AN: Fuji plays viola because all violist are awesome and viola is the best instrument ever (can you guess which instrument I play?). And I really like making Tezuka seem like a clumsy idiot because it's just so cute. **


	2. Challenges and First Impressions

It had been a week and Tezuka was going insane. It seemed that he couldn't go five minutes without seeing Fuji. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing all the time. In fact, it was quite nice when he ended up walking behind Fuji in the hallway and managed to get a very nice view of the genius's ass. It was also nice to be in the same changing room as him for dance, but it was much harder to get away with starring at him then.

The bad part was dance class. Fuji was an amazing dancer while Tezuka felt lucky to survive every class. It was even worse when they got out of dance class and walked down the hallways together to get to Philharmonic. Fuji walked out of class without even being short of breath while Tezuka was a sweaty mess of burning muscles. Even if he had dared try and start up a conversation with the dancer, Tezuka would probably be too out of breath to speak.

He continued watching Fuji (in the least stalker-ish way possible) waiting for the perfect moment to speak to him. The opportunity presented itself with a tall friendly boy named Kawamura. Tezuka rarely talked to him because the boy played bass and was always on the opposite side of the orchestra, but he was the type of person that everyone liked and everyone knew.

Kawamura was talking happily with Fuji when he gestured Tezuka over. He stood trying not to wobble on sore legs and self-consciously wiping some lingering sweat off his forehead. When he'd maneuvered to where Taka was the tall boy immediately introduced them.

Fuji smiled warmly at him saying in an angelic voice, "I've heard that you're the best violinist to come here in years."

Tezuka blushed despite himself. It was true, he was the best, but he'd never expected praise from someone as perfect as Fuji. The stoic boy replied nervously, "I guess I am. I've heard you're an amazing dancer."

Fuji shrugged and accepted the praise with the same nonchalant attitude, "I'm not the best, but I will be."

Taka snorted and said, "That's a pretty brave statement. Can you back it up?"

"I never say anything that I cannot back up", replied the beautiful boy calmly opening his eyes to give Kawamura a pointed look. When the gaze was turned on Tezuka, he felt his mouth drying up and a fresh line of sweat beaded on his forehead.

He stuttered nervously at a loss for words. It wasn't until those beautiful blue eyes closed again that he was able to talk. "That's a good thing. There're too many kids in this school that act like they're the best thing that ever lived."

"Like you're friend?" commented Fuji, "The silver-haired one."

Kawamura and Tezuka glanced at each other and the taller boy burst out laughing. Fuji looked between them with confusion. Tezuka commented with a faint smile playing on his lips, "You're an excellent judge of character."

Fuji laughed as well and something in Tezuka's chest fluttered. Beautiful, smart, musical, and funny. This boy had everything and he didn't even seem to realize it. Wishing he could spend all practice chatting with him, but Ryuzaki entered and they all scurried back to their seats.

Practice was going perfectly, until about halfway through the second movement of Peer Gynt when Ryuzaki stopped. Without her saying anything, the first chair cellist told his stand partner, "You forgot the F sharps."

"Shut up, Kaidoh", snapped Momoshiro, "I know that. I'm fixing it"

"Maybe you should mark it in your music", suggested Ryuzaki.

"It is marked", said Kaidoh, "Twice"

"It was one time", exclaimed Momo angrily, "You were playing in the entirely wrong key at the beginning of the first movement"

In an attempt to stop the childish bickering that always resulted from the heads of the cello section being in the same room together, Inui said, "You're both right and Momo, you're A string is approximately 1/12 steps flat."

Momo rolled his eyes and retuned the string muttering, "You always take his side"

Ryuzaki suddenly remember something and said excitedly, "Have I explained the showcase to this group?"

They all shook their heads as she continued, "This year, we're invited to send nine kids to play in a huge showcase with some of the world's top professionals. The auditions will be next month and we'll have to choose three soloists and three duets to send to the showcase. The auditions are open to any singer or string player, so you'll be competing with all the choruses as well as the other orchestras. Anyone who's interested in trying out, take one of the blue papers that I'll leave on the stand after rehearsal.

Practice began again, but now everyone was whispering during any break they had. A big showcase like that didn't happen often. Usually the only excitement like that came from challenges, speaking of which.

"We have two challenges this week", said Ryuzaki calmly, "Momoshiro's challenging Kaidoh", everyone groaned just like they did every week, "and Echizen Ryoma is challenging Inui"

Inui's expression changed into one of interest. It was quite daring for a freshman to even attempt a challenge, let alone challenging the second chair after less than a week with the music.

They started off with the "dueling cellos" as Kaidoh and Momo were nicknamed due to the tradition of challenging each other every week. Tezuka zoned out and concentrated on looking at Fuji's face without making it obvious that he was looking. The genius was pretty far away and there were too many people in the way to get a clear view. Tezuka gave up and turned back to watch Momo flying through a particularly difficult sight reading passage.

Ryuzaki constantly tried to deter the cellos from challenging each other by making the sight reading harder, but neither of them would stop. Every time Momo was bumped to second chair, he got pissed off and challenged Kaidoh. In turn when Kaidoh lost, he immediately challenged Momo.

By the time they'd both played, Ryuzaki had a very bored look on her face. Instead, of deciding herself, she turned to Inui asking, "What do you think?"

He replied swiftly, "Momo's threes were all a little sharp, but Kaidoh miscounted 37% more rests"

She looked back at the two chairs and said, "Just switch already"

Momo grinned happily and Kaidoh sighed and they switched. Ryuzaki turned to the first violin section saying, "Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King. You play first Echizen"

The small freshman asked, "What measure?"

"Play the fast part. You know what I'm talking about and I can't read these little measure numbers"

Echizen lifted his instrument and began playing the end part perfectly without any hesitation. He glanced up to whispers in the group. Freshman never played like that. Inui was unaffected by this and lifted his own violin. He played the same part just as perfectly, as you'd expected from him.

Ryuzaki's eyes glittered in interest. She handed them both sight reading and waited for a minute. Tezuka didn't dare interrupt Inui as he concentrated on the piece in front. Tezuka recognized the piece. It had been the same one that he'd played when he challenged the first chair last year. It was a famous piece that anyone with any knowledge of classical music would recognize, but few people actually knew the proper rhythm and therein lay the challenge.

Echizen played first again and to Tezuka's trained ear, it was nearly perfect. Several notes were slightly off and he'd skipped a beat near the end, though. All eyes turned to Inui who still wore a stony look of calm. He played through the song easily and Tezuka heard similar mistakes, but he couldn't figure out which of the boys had really been better.

When Inui finished, he immediately stood up without waiting for the official results. "I made 7% more mistakes than Echizen. I will accept defeat."

Ryuzaki sighed and said, "You're right. Echizen move to the front. Everyone else, move back one seat"

Commotion filled the room as the small boy moved to the front with a cocky grin on his face. He sat next to Tezuka without gloating. The boy didn't even look old enough to be a freshman. He had dark hair and large golden eyes that seemed to say, "I'm so much better than you".

When the conductor turned to remind, Niou, a silver-haired violist, that since he played viola that he couldn't challenge anyone in the second viola section, Tezuka asked Echizen, "Why didn't you challenge me?"

The boy grinned smugly and said, "I knew that I was good enough to beat him and I wasn't sure if I was better than you… yet"

Tezuka ignored the kid's overconfidence. Echizen was good, but he was nowhere Tezuka's level and wouldn't be for at least another year. The violinist made sure to grab the information for the showcase before it he left. Inui had the same idea and they walked out together discussing who would potentially win.

Tezuka suggested, "If any of the singers are going to get this, then it would defiantly be Eiji and Oishi. They'd probably try for one of the duets"

Inui nodded and said, "I was thinking of trying for a duet myself. Maybe, I could play with Kaidoh"

"You two don't usually play the same style of music though", said Tezuka, "Doesn't he prefer baroque and you play modern"

"There is always room for compromise. Who do you expect to get the solos, besides yourself?"

That was a hard question. There were many musicians in the school that were near professional level, after all. "Niou will definitely try out. So will Mizuki and Yagyuu. We might want to watch out for Echizen, too. He doesn't seem content with second chair."

"Don't forget Kawamura and Jackal. They're always complaining that basses don't get enough solos."

"You haven't mentioned me yet", said an angelic voice behind them. Tezuka almost dropped his case as Fuji grinned at them, "Or is it only first chairs that are worthy of your attention?"

Tezuka blustered immediately, "Of course not. It's just that usually only first chairs get solos."

"You shouldn't be so sure about that," said Fuji with an innocent smile.

The next week, Fuji challenged Niou, crushed him, and took his spot as first chair viola. The class all watched Fuji take his new spot with fear. After practice Fuji walked over to Tezuka saying, "Now that I'm first chair, am I worthy of notice?"

Tezuka gaped at the boy, unsure of how to reply. He'd never intended to compete with the boy and after hearing him play, the concert master wasn't sure he wanted to. Fuji waited until he realized that Tezuka wasn't going to reply and then left without another word. Tezuka turned to Inui and asked, "Could you tell me what just happened?"

Inui watched beautiful boy walk away saying, "I believe there is a 96% chance that you currently have a new rival."

**AN: Momo and Kaidoh are exactly like my stand partner and me. We're always competing over stupid things and bickering in the middle of rehearsal. We're also secretly planning on taking over the second violin section, but that's a different story. **


	3. And Then I Got Bored

Tezuka practiced twice as much as usual for the showcase tryouts. It wasn't that he was scared of Fuji, of course he wasn't. He was definitely going to get one of those spots. The extra practice was just a precaution because he had a reputation to keep up as the best musician in the school and he couldn't let his guard down.

And the more he thought about it, the less reason there was to be scared of Fuji. After all, it wasn't that surprising that Niou had been knocked down a peg. The previous first chair rarely practiced and had a tendency to slack off in the middle of rehearsal. The only reason that Fuji's win had been so daunting was because it was completely unprecedented for a first chair to lose so badly to the last chair.

That didn't stop Tezuka's heart from beating extra fast when Fuji so much as glanced at him during practice. Fuji's presence strained Tezuka's nerves to the breaking point. He was constantly messing up even the simplest passages and everyone around him seemed to be noticing. It would only be a matter of time before Echizen got cockier than he already was and decided to challenge him.

Tezuka also felt the eyes of the genius on him during ballet class. He was no longer physically dying in every class, but he still looked stiff and uncoordinated compared to the rest and he stumbled every time he saw Fuji looking in his direction even if the genius wasn't looking directly at him. He could practically hear Fuji laughing at him with Yukimura while he struggled to fall gracefully.

As much as Tezuka wanted to tell Fuji that he'd never underestimated him, and possible beg on his knees for forgiveness, he was far too scared to the beautiful boy. They didn't speak again until Tezuka was having a particularly long practice in one of the many practice rooms. He was working on attempting to find a sensible fingering for one of the songs, and failing when Fuji walked in.

The beautiful boy seemed surprised saying, "Sorry, this room is usually free by now. I'll just find another one"

Tezuka stopped him and began packing up, "No, wait. I'll go. I'd usually be done an hour ago"

Fuji paused asking, "You always practice in this room?"

"Of course", replied Tezuka happy to be having any conversation with the boy without stuttering, "I've used this room since freshman year because it's smaller than the others so no one uses it. It was always like my own personal practice room, but I guess…"

He trailed off awkwardly as Fuji answered, "Exactly. It's kinda like how I always use the studio in the basement because it doesn't have air conditioning and no one wants to dance in the heat"

Tezuka mentally celebrated to that fact that he and Fuji were having a civil conversation. He had at least one thing in common with Fuji and that was a start. He started towards the door and paused as Fuji bent to pull his viola out of its case, not missing a chance to see that perfect ass, and said, "I'm sorry about what I said"

Fuji straightened and turned smiling, "I know. But there's no reason to be scared of me. I'm sure you'll survive being second place."

"It's not a competition", said Tezuka bravely, as his face flushed, "And why are you so focused on beating me. I heard you were in love with dance and you just played viola because Ryuzaki talked you into it."

"Have you ever felt threatened?"

"Threatened?" asked Tezuka, completely thrown by the unexpected change of subject.

Fuji sighed and explained, "Whenever someone tried to surpass you, did you think that they'd ever succeed?"

"No and I'm not bragging. It's just a fact that I have yet to meet anyone who is anywhere near my abilities musically," Fuji raised an eyebrow, "A-at least, until recently"

"That's why I want to beat you", said Fuji, "You're a challenge. From what I've heard, no one here can come close to you in terms of skill. I was never interested in music because I was never challenged. Even my teachers couldn't keep up with me and I got bored and moved onto dance. But now, dance has gotten boring too and I figured that with someone like you, I might have someone to actually compete with."

Tezuka gaped in confusion. Fuji was really saying that he'd just gotten bored of music. How was it even possible that someone could be so good that they no longer felt challenged by something as complex and fascinating? Granted Tezuka had grown bored before when he had no one left that could compete with him, but that's why he'd started challenging himself to do better. He couldn't imagine just dropping music to try something else.

"You make it sound like this is just a game", the violinist finally managed to say.

"Isn't it?"

Tezuka turned to walk away, immediately face planting into the wall. He rubbed his head, mentally insulting the wall for getting in his way as he heard Fuji stifle a giggle behind him. Tezuka pretended like he hadn't just made a huge fool of himself and walked away with as much dignity as he could.

Still thinking about what Fuji had said, Tezuka decided to run and clear his head. After dropping his instrument off in his room, he changed and jogged around the campus. As he was running trying to figure out Fuji, he heard the sound of practicing nearby. Someone was practicing a duet and whoever they were, they didn't mesh. Within seconds of starting the song, they were playing at two completely different tempos.

Tezuka ran in the direction of the noise in curiosity. The players were both good, but no one got far in school without being able to play a simple duet.

It turned out to be Momo and Echizen who were currently arguing about the tempo.

"The song's supposed to be two hundred beats per minutes", argued Echizen.

"You don't start at two hundred", retorted Momo, "You start slower so that you can build up to two hundred"

"You should be able to play at two hundred if you actually practiced the song"

"I did practice"

Tezuka cleared his throat, startling the two. "Since when have you two been a pair?"

Momo answered, "Since the argument I had with Kaidoh. He said that only real men can play duets"

"So, this is just to compete with Kaidoh and Inui?"

They both nodded. Tezuka rolled his eyes and kept moving. He could hear the music begin again only to be cut off ten seconds into the song. He could barely keep himself from sighing at the antics of the pair. It was only another week until the audition and they'd better get their act together before they embarrassed the Philharmonic.

The next person that he ran into was Sanada. The capped boy looked like he'd been running for awhile, but he stopped to talk with Tezuka. "You don't usually run so late in the afternoon", commented Sanada.

"I could say the same for you", replied Tezuka calmly.

Sanada shrugged, but Tezuka could tell that something was bothering him because the stern tuba player looked unusually flushed. "It's just my roommate being weird"

"Yukimura?"

Sanada nodded and Tezuka wondered vaguely if they anything was going on between them. Sanada may be one of the few actual straight guys on the campus, but it had to be trying on anyone's sexuality to live in the same room as Yukimura.

"What's up with him?"

"Nothing", muttered Sanada as a brand new blush spread across his face, "Never mind. It's just my imagination"

Tezuka watched the tall boy run away and thought to himself that Sanada either had feelings for Yukimura or was denser than a bolder. The more he looked at it, the more likely it was that Sanada was in fact denser than a bolder.

Tezuka continued running for another thirty minutes before realizing that there was no way that running would help his understanding of Fuji and returned to his room to find Oishi and Kikumaru making out on Oishi's bed. He cleared his throat and they both stopped without looking remotely embarrassed at being caught.

"Why don't you guys ever go to Eiji's room?"

"Because Taka always has his boyfriend in our room", replied the small redhead as he shifted under his boyfriend.

Tezuka sighed and grabbed his homework, leaving the two to whatever they'd been doing. It was normal for them to do that right before dinner, but he'd secretly been hoping that they'd be somewhere else that day because he really wanted to be alone to think about Fuji. Instead he ended up in the library trying to ignore some particularly loud girls that were flirting with Inui, who was being surprisingly dense for someone so good at reading people.

When Inui brushed the girls away and came to sit besides Tezuka, the concert master asked, "Did you know that Echizen is trying for a duet with Momoshiro?"

"Yes. I am not worried about any competition. There is a 47% chance that they will not be able to put aside their rather difficult personalities in time for the auditions and even if they do, they will not be as in sync as Kaidoh and me."

Tezuka went back to doing homework and they both were silent for several seconds before Tezuka asked, "Have you succeed in getting any data on Fuji?"

Inui's eyes sparkled in interest, "I've discovered that while he does lack volume and stage presence, he makes up for it in near perfect technique and he's probably the most expressive player in the Philharmonic. If the judges grade heavily on emotion and musicality, there is an 89% chance that he will crush you"

Tezuka's hand froze on his homework and he looked up darkly, "Why should that matter? There are three spots. I don't doubt that I will get selected. It doesn't matter which of the three that the judges like the most"

It wasn't true. Inui's new fact actually terrified him slightly. He'd always been the best since he came to school and he didn't plan to lose that status. Is that what Fuji had said about being threatened? If it was, than Tezuka didn't like it. He vowed to work on his expressiveness for the next week so that he could compete with Fuji. He'd show that beautiful boy that he wasn't threatened at all.

**AN: I just finished my final midterm today and decided to celebrate by confusing Tezuka and making him walk into walls. I have a weird way of unwinding... **


	4. Preparing and More Important Things

"You skipped practice today", remarked Yukimura coldly as Fuji stepped into the greenhouse.

"Yes", replied Fuji honestly, "The auditions for the showcase are next week and I need to prepare. You can understand that right?"

"Why are you so concerned about the showcase?" asked Yukimura curiously, "You never showed the slightest interest in music before. Don't tell me that you're already bored of dancing"

Fuji walked over to examine the plant that Yukimura was tending to. It was a bright flower that looked like it was from deep in the rainforest. Typical, Yukimura really like exotic plants.

"I'm not bored of dancing", answered Fuji slowly, "After all, I'm not even close to your level yet. But dance just isn't enough. There's something missing"

The dance captain snorted derisively. "I've known you for years and there's always something missing with you. Music bores you. Art bores you. Tennis bores you. I'm fairly sure this whole gardening thing bores you too, even though you're sticking with it."

Fuji nodded. Beyond vague amusement, the whole garden that he and Yukimura had created over the years was pointless to him. "That's just because I can't find anything interesting enough. You've known me long enough to know that."

"So why are you showing such interest in music? I thought that music was far too easy for the miraculous Fuji Shusuke"

"You know that really clumsy guy from dance class?"

"The guy who's supposed to be some musical prodigy?"

"Yeah, he's... interesting"

Yukimura grinned and asked sweetly, "Does someone have a crush?"

"No. It's not a crush. It's just that he's so unpredictable", Fuji paused and grinned to himself, "Every other musician in the Philharmonic is so predictable that I practically know what they're about to say before they even open their mouths. Tezuka is harder to read. It's interesting and he might even be able to compete with me"

"Yeaaaah, not a crush", said Yukimura, leaning over to pat Fuji's cheek. The genius blushed as the dancer continued, "If you wanna chase after him that's perfectly fine, but not if it means wasting precious practice time. The recital is in a month and even though you have all the moves down perfectly doesn't give you an excuse to skip. The next time you miss any practice time, I'll make you run laps"

"Laps around where?"

"Don't skip practice and you won't have to find out"

Fuji merely rolled his eyes and moved to his section of the green house. It was much smaller than Yukimura's and much simpler. He preferred less flowery plants and his main focus was cacti. Why bother with exotic flowers from the middle of the Amazon that died with the slightest change in environment when you could have cacti that could survive anything? A small sprinkle of water even few days and they remained perfectly healthy. Simplicity was the greatest thing about cacti.

"How are things going with Sanada?"

Yukimura sighed in exasperation at the name of his roommate. "He's an idiot. He clearly has feelings for me but he refuses to acknowledge them"

"How do you know he's interested?"

The dancer grinned almost evilly. "I have my ways of knowing. But Sanada being an idiot is merely a small roadblock. Sooner or later, he'll realize that he's madly in love with me and then everything's straightforward"

Fuji sighed and continued to work with his plants. Yukimura and Sanada had been dancing around each other for several months now, well, more like Yukimura was dancing circles around Sanada while the stubborn boy refused to admit that anything was going on, and it was starting to get downright annoying. Fuji would be happy to lock the two of them in the closet of he thought it would help, but it wouldn't, so he resorted to rolling his eyes and Yukimura's increasingly odd ideas.

* * *

><p>Eiji doodled on his homework absentmindedly while Oishi rummaged through the music folder. Neither was particularly worried that the auditions were in a week and they hadn't even picked out a song yet. They had a long list of songs that they'd learned but never performed.<p>

"What about this one?"

Eiji glanced up at the music in front of him. "Can we sing something modern? I don't like Handel"

"We don't have many modern songs", muttered Oishi returning to searching.

"Oh, I know", Eiji jumped up and snatch the folder away from his boyfriend and pulling out an older piece of music, "What about this one?"

"That's a really easy song", replied Oishi doubtfully, "Are you sure that it's enough. They probably want us to sing something challenging"

"That's not the point"

Oishi patiently waited for Eiji to elaborate, but the redhead seemed lost in examining his piece of music.

"What's the point then?"

"Chemistry. The reason we're the best pair in the school is because no one can compete with our chemistry."

"Basic chemistry isn't enough to win against kids at this school. We need something else"

Eiji stood and moved closer to his boyfriend saying, "Everyone knows that were the best. We don't need a complicated song to sound good. And if we sing an easy song than we can spend more rehearsal time doing important things"

"Like what?"

The redhead moved faster than Oishi expected and pulled their lips together. They kissed for several minutes before running out of air.

"Ok," said Oishi with a silly grin, "I guess we can do that song."

Kikumaru nodded and pulled the other down for a kiss saying, "Awesome now we can continue with the important stuff"

* * *

><p>"Don't smoke in here"<p>

"Lay off, Taka", muttered Akutsu darkly as he continued lighting his cigarette. Kawamura sighed as the acrid smell filled the practice room.

"So, why did you call again?"

Kawamura lifted his base. "I wanted to get your opinion on this piece"

"Wouldn't it be easier to get one of your music friends to judge?"

"No one knows about... my problem. And you're as good a judge as any."

"Don't tell me that it's still a problem"

"Of course not," lied Kawamura, "it only happens when I'm playing now. It's get in the way anymore"

"You can't just pretend it doesn't exist, Taka. At least one person in this school should know"

As amusing as it was to be lectured on responsibility by the guy who'd dropped out of the school a month into freshman year, Kawamura didn't want to deal with his problems. He forced himself to lie. "I'll tell someone as soon as I can find someone that I trust. Can you just listen to my song now?"

"Whatever", muttered Akutsu darkly and he let out a long smoky breath.

Kawamura lifted his bow and took a deep breath before letting the red overtake his vision and the world fade away.

He regained consciousness to find himself pinning Akutsu to the wall with a rough kiss.

Kawamura jumped back in surprise. The silver haired boy didn't seem surprised by the sudden retreat. He merely rubbed his wrist that would soon bear bruises and said, "I can see that you have everything completely under control"

Kawamura immediately burst into uncontrollable tears. He'd though that he'd be able to pull himself back before he'd hurt anyone, but it seemed he was wrong.

"Stop blubbering", snapped Akutsu darkly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to"

Taka was brought out of his tears when his friend dragged him roughly to his feet. His eyes immediately dropped to the ground but Akutsu didn't seem to mind.

"The only reason you've been able to get rid of your problem is because you're such a pansy. Of course you can't change anything when you're too scared to even try."

"I'm sorry"

"If you haven't found someone to tell by the end of this week, than I'm going to personally tell all of your friends whether you trust them or not", said Akutsu firmly before walking out. Taka watched him go in fear before immediately dissolving into tears again.

He couldn't tell anyone his secret. An sane person would insist that he be locked up. But if he didn't tell someone than Akutsu would tell everyone. Either way he was doomed.

* * *

><p>"You're rushing"<p>

"You're dragging"

"No I'm not"

"Yes, you are. You always drag"

"Well, you always rush"

Echizen rolled his eyes and refrained from retorting. Arguments like this never ended with Momoshiro. Instead he said, "I have the melody here and that means that I control the tempo"

Momo replied, "I have quarter notes which means I'm the metronome and I control the tempo."

"You can't control the tempo. You're always so slow"

"You just want to play the song to fast"

The music was forgotten as they began bickering childishly about the tempo yet again.

* * *

><p>"Kaidoh, you're As were sharp 33% of the time during this passage", instructed Inui while leaning over the younger boy's shoulder.<p>

Kaidoh hissed and nodded, but didn't react otherwise. Even when Inui hovered over his shoulder for several seconds longer than necessary, Kaidoh didn't react at all.

"Do you want to try the song again?"

Kaidoh shrugged and nodded not saying a word. 95% chance that he was agreeing.

Inui signaled the tempo and they both began. Inui found the music simple and rather boring. Bach's mathematical music was interesting, but overly predictable and barely required him to concentrate on the music in front of him. Kaidoh, on the other hand, never seemed to lose focus during the song. It made it easy to watch him without interruption.

Inui could easily admit that he was interested in Kaidoh, but he couldn't quite explain what made Kaidoh so fascinating. Normally such an anomaly in logic would frustrate the data boy to no end, but for whatever reason, with Kaidoh it didn't matter.

When they reached the end of the song, Kaidoh looked up, "How did I do this time?"

"Much better", grumbled Inui half-heartedly, "You came in late at forty-six, but you're intonation was perfect this time"

Kaidoh blushed at the praise and Inui found himself taking note. Suggestive language, invading personal space, and blatant flirting didn't show any results, but a mere compliment made Kaidoh blush. That could be useful later.

Inui glanced at his watch and jumped in surprise. The practice had run 24 minutes later than normal.

"I guess we should wrap things up. You probably have some homework or something"

"No", said Kaidoh quietly as they both moved to pack up, "I finished all my homework before rehearsal."

"I see", replied Inui calmly. There was less than a 15% chance that it was meant to be an invitation. But it was 150% more than Inui was used to hearing out of his new partner. He watched Kaidoh out of the corner of eye as he packed up. No indication of nerves and no tells to what he was thinking. Completely unreadable as usual.

They walked back to the storage room together and dropped their instruments off without saying a word. With anyone else, it would be awkward, but with Kaidoh, it worked.

* * *

><p>"Does your back ever bend?" asked Atobe sarcastically.<p>

"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Tezuka in reply.

"When you play, you don't move. You have the most perfect posture in the history of proper posture and it's annoying", explained Atobe.

"That has nothing to do with expression"

Atobe sighed in exasperation. "Yes it does. You need to move with the music. Bend and sway. You need to move to show emotion."

"You want me to dance while playing the violin. I can't dance without the instrument, what makes you think that I could dance with it?"

"You're completely hopeless", said Atobe moving to grab Tezuka's shoulders, forcing him to sway, "It's not dancing, it's swaying. Back and forth, back and forth. See, you can actually move"

Tezuka pushed him away in annoyance. He'd hoped that Atobe would be able to teach him how to be expressive, but all the arrogant boy was doing was being distracting.

"There's more to being expressive than swaying. How do you show emotion?"

"Well, for one, I can actually show emotion with my face", Atobe cracked a smile, "See emotion. Smiling, it's this thing that humans do when they're happy"

Tezuka glared back at him without even a fake smile. "This isn't a happy piece. It's a fiddle tune. It's supposed to be aggressive and furious not happy"

"Then get angry when you play it"

"So, you're saying all I have to do is think about you", said Tezuka calmly.

Atobe rolled his eyes. "Your jealously is amusing. I shouldn't have decided to help you after all"

The silver haired boy stood to leave, and Tezuka made no move to stop him. Atobe was clearly in no mood to help him and his presence was only distracting. Unfortunately, Atobe decided that he wasn't done talking to Tezuka.

"So, that Fuji is really scaring you. I'd never thought I'd see the day that you'd actually admit that expression was important."

"I'm merely trying to improve my playing. I'm not competing with him", replied Tezuka curtly.

"Competition isn't a bad thing", said Atobe, "It's the reason I'm where I am. If there's no one to beat then what's the point of playing."

"That's all fine, but I'm not competing"

Atobe scoffed but didn't say anything. Tezuka took the silence as an opportunity to start playing. The song was insanely fast and it was nearly impossible to focus on anything but getting the notes right. He finished without making a single mistake and glanced up with Atobe.

"You still look like a statue", said Atobe smoothly, "Maybe you should just stick with the whole robotic playing machine. It's not like the judges won't pick you."

"I can't let my guard down. If I don't work on continuously improving, then I might fall behind'

Atobe rolled his eyes. Typical Tezuka talk. It didn't matter that he was the best player in the school. That wouldn't be enough; no he had to be the best player in the world. Atobe secretly hoped that Fuji wouldn't crush Tezuka in the audition just so that the concert master could just move on with his life and relax for a few seconds.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Random question. Am I the only one that's kind of disturbed by Kawamura's 'Burning Mode"? It's basically multi-personality disorder that he can barely control and his other personality is dangerous to himself and other in canon. Don't get me wrong, I love Kawamura and he's hilarious, but it's really weird that no one even considers that having a split personality could be a bad thing. <strong>

**On a happier note, thanks to everyone that's reviewed and alerted and favorited. I send you my virtual love. **


	5. Results

The day after the audition, the results were posted. It had been a closed audition, much to Tezuka's dismay. He'd secretly been hoping to see a serious solo from Fuji. He'd only gotten to hear Fuji play alone once and that hadn't been enough to really tell how good he was.

The crowd had gathered around, but as he walked through the crowd no one stopped him to tell him if he'd been chosen. That didn't surprise him. It was a tradition to let those who had gotten parts see for themselves instead of telling them. Some of the actors would even go as far as to pretend that their friends hadn't gotten the part they'd wanted just to screw with them.

When he read the paper he wasn't sure if he should sigh in relief or frustration. He re-read the list again to see everyone that'd gotten in.

Selected Soloist

Soloist #1 - Fuji Shusuke (viola)

Soloist #2 – Tezuka Kunimitsu (violin)

Soloist #3 - Ibu Shinji

Selected Duets

Duet #1 Oishi Shuichiro (vocal) and Kikumaru EIji (vocal)

Duet #2 was Inui Sadahara (violin) and Kaidoh Karou (cello)

Duet #3 was Momoshiro Takeshi (cello) and Echizen Ryoma (violin)

It wasn't anything particularly unexpected. He had never heard of the singer, Ibu, but all the other selection were what he had expected.

Inui approached the paper reading with even less surprise than Tezuka. The concert master asked, "Is everything according to your calculations?"

"Of course", replied the data player, "I had been expecting Taka to get the third solo, but I saw him yesterday and he said that he completely screwed up his audition, so it's not surprising that he didn't get it. I do need to get more data on this singer though"

The two made their way out of the crowd and ran into Fuji, who wore a rather smug grin. "I win", said the boy in a friendly voice.

"So did I", replied Tezuka, "Congratulations"

Fuji shook his head still grinning. "You didn't win. You got second and I got first. That means: I win. I'm sure it was close race though. Better luck next time."

The small boy walked away without losing his friendly demeanor. Tezuka wasn't sure if he should feel upset, angry, confused, or kind of turned on. He knew that he shouldn't be the last one, but that's what it ended it up being. It wasn't Fuji's fault that everything he did was attractive; it wasn't like Tezuka was weird for noticing it.

Atobe appeared by Tezuka's side as he said calmly, "If I'd been able to try out, then I'd be one that list. It's a pity that I didn't even get a chance to let them be awed at my prowess."

Tezuka rolled his eyes asking, "I doubt it. You don't even practice."

"Yes I do", replied Atobe testily, "I always practice even though I don't have to. That's just how good of a role model I am."

Inui straightened his glasses and said dryly, "The percentage of students here that think you're actually a good role model is approximately .5."

"There's actually someone that's thinks the he's good role model?" asked Tezuka incredulously.

Atobe growled and walked away to try and impress someone that actually took him seriously.

"Are you worried about Fuji?"

Tezuka gave Inui his best death glare and said, "I am not threatened by him. I accept that he's on the same level as me maybe even better, but we're not competing. This isn't a competition."

"He's seems to think it is", replied Inui.

"We're not competing!"

Inui was smiling for some reason and Tezuka found it rather terrifying. Inui smiling was rarely a good thing. Before Tezuka could get really uncomfortable, he was sandwiched between Oishi and Kikumaru. The smaller boy wrapped a friendly arm around Tezuka's shoulder saying, "We got selected, too."

Oishi leaned on Tezuka other side saying, "That's not surprising. Did you doubt we'd get it?"

Kikumaru shook his head saying, "I never did, but Inui said that there was a 36% chance that he and Kaidoh would be the first duet."

Tezuka snapped, "This isn't a competition. Why is everyone acting like we're competing?"

Inui seemed to lose interest in the competition that wasn't happening between Tezuka and Fuji as he began asking about the third soloist. Tezuka listened with interest as Eiji explained that Ibu was a singer known for having a complete poker face until he began singing, when he could bring anyone to tears. Apparently he was also extremely insane and often talked to himself, but Inui didn't seem interested in that.

As they talked, Tezuka noticed Kawamura pacing nervously a little ways away from the crowd. Tezuka walked over and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just nervous about something. I need to tell someone something, but I don't know who to tell or what to tell them or how to tell them for that matter."

Tezuka nodded in confusion as Taka sighed on frustration. Kawamura looked pale and shaky as he wrung his hands in frustration.

"Are you OK?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean, I will be OK if I can just… no, I can't do that", replied Kawamura absentmindedly.

"See you around, then", said Tezuka moving away from him unsure of how to react.

As Tezuka moved away, Kawamura seemed to realize something. He grinned in relief and said, "Of course! That makes it so much easier. Thanks for your help Tezuka!"

The violinist rolled his eyes and moved on. He was getting used to everyone being crazy. He went back to talk to Inui and Oishi, who were discussing what they expected to perform for the showcase.

Inui said, "Are you planning to choose another song for the actual showcase?"

"I thought that the audition song was the song that we had to perform", replied Oishi.

"No, the audition was merely a selection. We still have to choose the songs for the actual showcase", replied Inui.

Oishi shrugged, "I'm fine with the song I'm singing with Eiji. It's easy, but it's really fun. What about you Tezuka?"

Tezuka shrugged. He didn't care. The song he'd done for the audition was easy enough. He could change to another song, but that actually took the effort of choosing and perfecting a completely different song.

Inui said, "I, for one, am planning to choose another song. I don't want to have to practice that horrid boring song for another month. All I have to do is convince Kaidoh to change the song as well."

"Why did you want to want to play with him if you didn't like his style of music?" asked Tezuka.

"I have my reasons", replied Inui stonily.

Tezuka was suddenly distracted by the sight of Fuji talking to Kawamura. The tall boy looked even more nervous and panicked then he had before and Fuji looked rather alarmed by what Kawamura was saying. Tezuka pulled his gaze away reluctantly deciding that whatever it was, it was none of his business.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Why is it that teachers always assign everything at the same time? In the past week I've had a major test in every class and I had several papers due on the same day. Urgh. I was kind of half awake when I wrote this so I apologize for any mistakes. Please review. Peace out.<strong>


	6. It's Not a Date

"Are you doing anything afterschool today?" asked Sanada.

Tezuka glanced up at the stoic boy with surprise. "No, is there something that you needed me to do?'

"Not exactly, it's just you're in my math class and I was going to study for the test tomorrow and I thought we might study together", replied Sanada.

Tezuka sighed as he remembered that there was a test. He'd completely forgotten due to being so focused on practicing for the audition. The class was pretty easy for him, so he wasn't worried, but he was angry that he'd completely forgotten about the test.

"Yeah, sure. What's the test on again?"

"Derivatives and other stuff that I don't understand."

Yukimura suddenly appeared out of nowhere and asked, "So are we still on for the study date after school?"

Sanada nodded and said, "Yes, and I invited Tezuka too because he has the highest grade in our class"

Yukimura's smile faltered and he sent a glare at Tezuka before returning his gaze to Sanada again, "That's fine. The more the merrier, right?"

Before Sanada could reply, Yukimura turned and disappeared as quickly as he'd appeared. Tezuka raised an eyebrow at Sanada who grinned sheepishly.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt your date with Yukimura", said Tezuka.

"It's not a date! He's just calling it that to get on my nerves", snapped Sanada testily, "It's definitely not a date"

"Really? Because I'm not sure if he knows that", replied Tezuka sarcastically.

"Please, come with us. I don't want to be alone with him for too long. I don't trust him and he keeps giving me these weird looks."

Tezuka rolled his eyes and agreed reluctantly.

* * *

><p>When Tezuka and Sanada arrived at the library they saw Fuji and Yukimura talking about something in hushed tones. The second that the stoic boys were noticed, both dancers began laughing about something that clearly had to do with them.<p>

Sanada sat down looking down nervously. Tezuka glanced at Fuji who didn't have any books, but didn't look like he planned to leave. The dancer grinned at Tezuka and said, "You're in calculus too?"

Tezuka nodded and sat next to Sanada as Yukimura said, "I thought I'd invite Fuji since he's in my math class and he's pretty good at this stuff."

Sanada nodded and opened his book flipping to the chapter they were working on. "I don't really get the trig stuff here. I keep getting the derivate of secant and tangent confused"

Yukimura stood and walked around the table asking, "Why are you so far away? I can't help you unless I can see your book"

The dancer further accented his point by leaning much closer than necessary and explaining the work. Tezuka was positive that Sanada didn't hear a word that was being said because the boy's face was turning redder by the second.

Yukimura pulled away and asked, "Does that make more sense?"

Sanada nodded dumbly and pretended to examine the textbook. Yukimura pouted and sat next to Sanada, scooting his chair over so the two's hips were touching as he tried to get Sanada to react.

Tezuka glanced up at Fuji. The beautiful boy's eyes were closed and he looked almost if he was sleeping while sitting up. Tezuka asked quietly, "What song are you doing for the show?"

Fuji shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. I liked the song I did for the audition, but I was thinking of picking a slower song for the actual performance. What about you?"

"I think I'm going to stick with my song. I know it perfectly and I don't know if I'll have time to perfect another song like it in time", replied Tezuka as Yukimura continued flirting with Sanada.

"What song is that?"

"Fiddler's Fury", replied Tezuka, "It's really obscure, but it's brilliant"

"Doesn't seem like your style", said Fuji curiously, "I always pictured you playing some stiff song, not fiddling"

"I like to try different styles. It happen to like Irish fiddle tunes, though"

The two were interrupted by Sanada suddenly standing up and stuttering, "I'll be right back"

He walked out of the library quickly. Fuji laughed lightly. "I told you you'd scare him away if you weren't careful"

Yukimura pouted and crossed his arms stubbornly. "I swore that he was loosening up, but every time that I think I'm getting somewhere, he goes back to the same stiff persona he was before"

Tezuka asked, "Have you told him that you like him?"

"Of course I have", replied Yukimura, "I asked him out on a date didn't I. That should be self explanatory."

"Not for Sanada", said Tezuka, "You have to be a little blunter when it comes to talking to him. Trust me. When we were in freshmen, there was a girl that was trying to ask him out. She had to try five times before he realized what she meant."

"He had a girlfriend?" asked Yukimura in shock, "How did I not know about that?"

Fuji said, "He turned her down. I remember that because she was in my dance class that year. He didn't pretty bluntly too. She was pretty upset."

Yukimura paused to think for several seconds before standing up very suddenly and declaring, "I know what I have to do now."

Fuji and Tezuka watched him leave and Fuji said, "I really think I should try and stop him."

"You probably should", replied Tezuka before returning to studying for the test. Fuji glanced in the direction that Yukimura had left and sighed. "I know that I should go after him, but there's no way he'll listen to me."

Tezuka grunted in response and glanced up nervously. Fuji wasn't still looking away absentmindedly. After a long awkward silence, Fuji stood and moved over to Tezuka's side of the table. He glanced down at the book and asked, "Do you need any help with this?"

"No", replied Tezuka stubbornly, "I was going to help Sanada study. I understand all this perfectly"

"Oh, I was hoping for an excuse to do something", said Fuji sadly, "I don't have anything to do until rehearsal at five and I'm so bored"

"Why don't you study then?"

Fuji snorted and sat down next to Tezuka. "Why would I do that? If I already know it then why bother to study? It would just be wasting time"

"You shouldn't get to overconfident", replied Tezuka, "What if you don't study and then the teacher asks the one question that you don't know because you didn't study it?"

"Then I'd get one question wrong. I have a 98 in that class. I could fail this test and still keep a solid A"

Tezuka rolled his eyes as he was suddenly reminded of Atobe. Fuji stared off into space as Tezuka continued studying diligently. The silence had almost become comfortably, when Fuji noticed something on Tezuka's backpack.

"You play tennis?"

Tezuka glanced down in confusion before remembering that his backpack had the logo of the tennis team he'd played for blazon across the front.

"I used to play, but then it got in the way of violin, so I quit"

"Were you any good?"

"Yes"

It was true. Tezuka had been offered a spot on a nationally ranked team a few weeks before he quit, but he'd turned them down.

"I used to play too", said Fuji, "I was pretty good too, but tennis always bored me. After I beat the captain of my team, I just quit because there was nowhere else to go from there"

"Would you want to play a match?" asked Tezuka nervously before his nerves could get the best of him.

Fuji smiled and replied, "That sounds fun. I haven't played in ages though so I'd probably be really out of practice"

"I'm out of practice too. It'll be interesting to see which of us is more rusty", said Tezuka holding back a small smile. He'd just scored a date with Fuji. Maybe it wasn't a technical date, but he didn't care about that.

Fuji seemed to have gotten bored again, because he was scratching his initials into the tabletop with an old mechanical pencil. Normally, Tezuka would have snapped at him for defacing the school's property, but he was too happy to care.

Fuji broke the silence again saying, "When do you want to play?"

"How about tomorrow after school?" replied Tezuka a little too hastily.

"Don't you have some big test to study for?"

Tezuka ignored the teasing and replied seriously, "No, I think I know all this already,"

Fuji grinned and Tezuka felt his face heat up slightly. Fuji didn't notice as he continued scratching the tabletop.

Without warning, the school librarian swept by and began telling Fuji off for destroying the table. Tezuka watched as Fuji was thrown out of the library as the library began ranting to any student to would listen about how students had no respect for the valuable services that the library provided.

As he started to pack up his books, Sanada returned to get his books. Tezuka asked, "Did you escape?"

The capped boy sighed. "I just don't understand why he's acting so weird?"

"Do you want me to spell it out for you?"

Sanada glared at Tezuka and said, "I'm not stupid. I know why he's acting like that, I just don't know now he expects me to respond; I'm not interested in other guys."

Tezuka rolled his eyes. "Well, I am and I have a date tomorrow, so I need to go find my old tennis racket"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm trying to put a chapter up at least one a week, but with my busy schedule, I might not be able to keep that up. I'll try to keep it up, but I'm a major slacker, so don't be surprised if I fall behind.<strong>


	7. Nothing Goes as Planned

Tezuka was never one to be emotional or nervous. He'd always looked down on the people who would shake and jump up and down every time something important was about to happen, but today, he could see why they did it. He was going on a date with Fuji, and it was hard to repress his excitement. Oishi definitely noticed when Tezuka woke up with faint smile instead of his normal morning glare, but didn't comment.

During last night's dinner, Fuji had suggested meeting at ten, which gave Tezuka two painful hours to wait in excitement. He left to practice, but he was so distracted that even music couldn't calm him down.

At exactly ten, he walked onto the tennis court swinging his old racket nervously. The racket itself was old and was too small for Tezuka large hands, but it was still useable. He was barely there for a minute when Fuji strolled in not looking nervous at all. In fact, Fuji looked completely relaxed.

"You ready to play?" asked Fuji with a warm smile that made Tezuka's brain melt.

"You don't need to stretch?"

Fuji shrugged and stretched his arms, "Not really, I had dance earlier, so I'm already warmed up"

Tezuka nodded, tossing his racket between hands.

He couldn't decide which hand to use. He should use his stronger left hand, but what if Fuji wasn't that good at tennis. It wouldn't be sportsmanlike or friendly to show no mercy. On the other hand, Fuji could be really good and then Tezuka couldn't underestimate him. In the end, he decided to stick with his left, just in case.

"I'll serve first', said Fuji grabbing a tennis ball from the basket. Tezuka nodded and watched carefully as Fuji served.

The ball was almost too fast to be seen, and Tezuka let out a noise of surprise as Fuji declared happily, "15- Love"

The next serve was just as fast, but this time, Tezuka was ready for it. He lunged and sent it flying back. Fuji laughed softly and said, "I didn't expect that. You are good"

Tezuka nodded confidently as Fuji prepared to serve again. This time they volleyed for several minutes before Fuji spun the ball so that it vanished and reappeared behind Tezuka.

That's when Tezuka decided to get serious. He got so focused on the game that he didn't even pay attention to the score until Fuji sighed in defeat.

"6-Love. You win"

Fuji looked upset that he lost, saying, "I guess, I'm just really out of practice. Maybe if we'd played back when we were both on teams…"

Now that the adrenaline of the game was wearing off, Tezuka began to feel his muscles aching and the sweat beading on his forehead. Fuji was an unbelievable player, but Tezuka just happened to be better. The violinist hadn't been able to let his guard down for even a second during that game.

"You're really, really good", muttered Tezuka as encouragingly as he could. I bet if we played again, you'd win."

"Now you're just feeling sorry for me," snapped Fuji.

"No, I'm saying that I've never come so close to losing a game"

Fuji glanced at his watch and said, "I guess I can play one more match. But don't you dare go easy on me. I can't stand winning by default."

"Don't lose anything on purpose", replied Tezuka seriously.

Then the next match began. What felt like thirty minutes later, Tezuka realized they'd been playing for three hours and it was long past lunch time. They'd played three matches; all won by Tezuka, and Fuji was looking increasingly annoyed.

When the final game of the fourth match ended with Tezuka winning 6-4, Fuji seemed to give up completely. "I guess I'm just out classed," he said with a false smile.

Tezuka winced. He'd intended to get closer to Fuji not piss him off. The genius glanced at his watch and said, "Sorry, I have rehearsal in ten minutes, I have to run. I guess, I'll see you around"

As the dancer ran off, Tezuka sighed in agitation. Maybe it would have been easier to just let Fuji win instead of being so stubborn.

He walked slowly back to the dorm only to be interrupted by Atobe.

"What have you been doing?"

Tezuka replied shortly, "I was playing tennis. Excuse me I need to shower now"

Atobe grinned suggestively saying, "I was planning to shower too. Want to join me?"

"No", replied Tezuka quickly before beginning to walk away.

Atobe didn't take the hint and followed Tezuka through the hallways. "So, how's your date with Fuji go?"

"How did you know about that?"

"I have my ways", Atobe brushed off the comment easily.

"Well, it's none of your business", snapped the violinist.

Atobe chuckled knowingly. "Not good then. What did you do wrong?"

"I didn't do anything wrong. It just didn't go well. What do you want?"

"I told you. I want someone to shower with. It's been a while since I had a good fuck."

Tezuka arrived at his room and tried to shove the door in Atobe's face, but the boy stuck his foot in the door saying, "Don't be that way. And don't tell me that you've never considered it"

"I haven't considered it," lied Tezuka. He'd obviously considered sleeping with Atobe before. Everyone had, but actually going through with it was unthinkable.

"Then maybe you'd consider it now", suggested Atobe smoothly.

Tezuka rolled his eyes and opened the door wide enough to push Atobe back before slamming the door shut. He'd have to come out soon to shower, but Atobe didn't have the attention span to wait for very long.

Sure enough, less than a minute later, there were voices coming from the hallway and Atobe and the passing stranger walked away quickly. It seemed that Atobe found someone willing to sleep with him.

Tezuka quickly showered and returned to his room to do his homework.

After an hour or so of work, he drifted off to sleep, the tennis game taking its toll on him.

He was woken by the sounds of sirens screaming through the air. He rose and walked out of the door calmly. It wasn't the first time ambulances had been called that year. Usually it was some dancer that fell and injured themselves.

As he strolled onto the lawn of the school, Eiji ran up to him in saying, "Did you hear what happened?"

"No, did you?"

Eiji shook his head and looked around. Everyone around them seemed just as confused as they were as more students flocked to the sirens. It wasn't until Eiji swerved through the crowd and pulled out a dancer with short red hair that they found anyone who knew what happened.

Eiji asked, "What happened, Gaukto?"

The boy sighed and replied, "It was Fuji. Apparently he practiced too long because he fell during rehearsal"

"He just collapsed?" asked Tezuka nervously.

Gakuto shook his head and said, "No, he twisted his ankle, fell, and hit his head against the wall. But, he should be fine"

Tezuka and Eiji stared at the boy in confusion. Eiji asked, "He hurt his ankle and his head in the same fall?"

Gakuto nodded and walked away to talk to another dancer as Tezuka tried to keep the nerves from showing on his face. Kikumaru didn't try hiding anything as he bit his lip asking, "Do you think he's gonna be all right?"

"Yes, he's probably fallen before. The ambulance is probably just a precaution", Tezuka muttered not convincing himself.

As if to prove that what Tezuka had said was a lie, the ambulance pulled away and it quickly spread through the crowd that Fuji had been in the vehicle.


End file.
